The invention relates to a single-piece, electric hermaphroditic contact part with a plug-in area and a terminal area for a hermaphroditic plug-in connector, the contact part having a plug-in area with a sleeve contact and a pin contact that are arranged directly adjacent to one another.
An electric hermaphroditic contact part of this kind is required to facilitate unmistakable plugging when connecting electric conductors for the transmission of high current-carrying capacity.
A reversible plug-in device is known from Swiss patent specification 30 514 that describes a coupling for electric lines with identical coupling halves, in which the free end of the contact points consists of a pin of semicircular cross-section and a sheath of sickle-shaped cross-section, the hollow side of which faces the flat side of the pin, so that when coupled together the pins of the coupling half always come to lie in the sheath of the other coupling half.
A hermaphroditic multiple plug is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,409 in which two identical, round plug pins respectively have two axially formed fingers that are separated by a central slot, the plug pins being pluggable into one another with an exact fit with a 90xc2x0 rotation.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,537 describes a hermaphroditic contact that has two tongues arranged adjacent to one another, one of which is executed flat and the second elastically. When the contacts, which are offset in relation to one another by 180xc2x0, are plugged together, a flat tongue meets an elastically designed tongue respectively.
The object of the invention therefore is to develop a hermaphroditic contact part of the type specified at the beginning, in which the contact part has a plug-in contact with a sleeve and a pin, to the extent that the contact part is suitable for the transmission of high current-carrying capacity, yet can be used at the same time in known and existing plug systems.
This object is achieved in that the contact part is manufactured from solid material, the sleeve contact having a pincer-shaped receptacle with an expanded recess, into which an U-shaped, elastic contact element provided with a tulip-shaped plug-in area is inserted.
An advantageous configuration of the invention is indicated in claim 2.
The advantages achieved with the invention consist in particular in the fact that such an electric hermaphroditically formed contact can be used unmistakably as a reversibly pluggable contact together with a correspondingly formed plug casing.
In addition, such a contact has the advantage that only one component has to be kept in stock.
A solidly formed contact element is provided in which the sleeve contact is formed pincer-shaped, into which only an elastic contact element with a tulip-shaped plug-in area is inserted. Furthermore, it is advantageous that this contact with a correspondingly formed plug casing is insertable in existing casing designs and is thus exchangeable, the improved electrical properties due to the double contacting also facilitating a high current load through the double pin and sleeve contacts.